Imperial cuisine in a palace--you can't beat that! Fangshan Resturant offers the ordinary folks like us a taste of what a typical meal is like in the royal palace, and therefore, it's not surprising to hear that this is one of the more exclusive restaurants in Beijing. Court Cuisine originates from the imperial kitchen, which cooked food for the emperor and his family. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, some chefs from the imperial kitchen opened restaurants in the capital to introduce the special food once only eaten by the imperial family. The restaurant itself is situated on the edge of a lake in a large, sprawling traditional building and is terribly romantic. When we came in, they had a group of ladies dressed as Qing dynasty courtesans dancing in the main courtyard. It certainly was a VERY interesting dinner that included turtle, deer, and other rare imperial treats. The dishes seemed to be meticulously prepared with rare and expensive foodstuffs, such as bird nests and shark fins, and the restaurant is also known for its pastries, including pea-flour cakes, kidney bean-flour rolls, miniature corn buns, and sesame-seed buns with chopped meat filling.
I would recommend this as a must-do activity! You could really splurge and book an Emperor's Banquet, which you get to dress up as an Emperor for--you need to reserve and order well in advance for this. A bit touristy, perhaps, but lots of fun. The dumplings, by the way, are excellent.